Breaking News!May 23, 2000

Toucans Win 6-Year Trademark
Battle With Cereal Giant!

(american
beak junglewire - seattle) - The Toucans Steel Drum Band
has been involved in a trademark dispute with the Battle Creek
cereal giant Kellogg's since late 1993. The dispute arose over
the band's attempt to register their name as a trademark, a move
which Kellogg's lawyers attempted to obstruct, and characterized
as "likely to confuse customers". Not many people fell
for it, but the "tony tigers of steel" were instantly
embroiled in a lengthy (and expensive) trademark dispute which
attracted nation-wide attention.

Despite no reports of people attempting to eat the Toucans'
CD's for breakfast, it has taken a full six years of work on
the part of the band to successfully register their trademark
application. On Monday, May 22, 2000, the band received notice
from the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) that their
application has been approved!

Woo-Hoo! *squawk!*

The Toucans would like to thank everyone for their kind and
widespread support over the past six years; it's really meant
a lot to us, and we hope to be able to repay you all with lots
more great steel drum music for years to come!

Press Release
3(Feb 1996)
Are the Toucans ready to reach a
settlement with Kellogg's?!?

How To Help!
Information about where to call, write, and
generally make your voice heard.

Stay tuned to this space for more updates, including
previously secret negotiation documents between the Toucans and
Kelloggs' lawyers, letters and emails to both parties, and a
comprehensive timeline of the entire sordid affair.

Peter Boyko of Toucan Golf has been battling the Battle Creek Juggernaut with some success! Find out more on his site.

If you're interested in the specifics of trademark
law, or in some related cases, here are a few links for you to
check out. The first is the US Patent & Trademark Office's
basic facts about what exactly a trademark
is. You can find a lot of great intellectual property resources
on Yahoo, too.

You may have also heard about a trademark infringement case
brought against Henson Productions by Hormel Foods, the makers
of Spam canned whatever. They took offense at the name of a wild
boar, Spa'am, a character in Henson's new movie, Muppet Treasure
Island. Here's one of the better news
articles about the case, and here is the legal
opinion from the case, written by judge Kimba Wood. It's
great! and contains lots of pertinent, though somewhat legal,
information about some of the salient issues of the case. A fantastic
introduction to the niceties of trademark law.